Projects

Sustainability

AISNT has a long and proud record of working in the Sustainability space, primarily with Professor Paul Clarke and the Pop-Up Foundation. Read all about it here.

Sustainability is an issue of great importance to the Northern Territory, and to young people across the globe. Sustainability is a cross-curriculum priority within the Australian Curriculum.

“Education for sustainability develops the knowledge, skills, values and world-views necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to more sustainable patterns of living. It enables individuals and communities to reflect on ways of interpreting and engaging with the world. Sustainability education is futures-oriented, focusing on protecting environments and creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed action. Actions that support more sustainable patterns of living require consideration of environmental, social, cultural and economic systems and their interdependence."

Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), viewed on the Australian Curriculum website on 21/10/2015.

Target <2 Degrees

The United Nations Paris Climate Conference (COP21), held in November 2015, involved representatives from 195 countries. COP21 achieved a legally binding and universal agreement to combat climate change. COP21 concluded with an objective to ‘strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, including by:

Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;

Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production’.

Schools play a critical role in helping to work towards the objectives of this universal agreement through the education of young Australians, in understanding climate change and its impact, and through collaborative actions. Australian governments recognised the role of schools in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, where they acknowledged that changes in the world place new demands on education, such as ‘complex environmental, social and economic pressures such as climate change’ that ‘pose unprecedented challenges, requiring countries to work together in new ways. To meet these challenges, Australians must be able to engage with scientific concepts and principles, and approach problem-solving in new and creative ways.’ The Australian governments committed to support young Australians to become active and informed citizens, who ‘work for the common good, in particular sustaining and improving the natural and social environment.’